what was life back in 50s like?

Question

im doing a research paper for school, on how life was in the 40s to 50s. how is life different now? how did people act then, and how do you feel about the way people act now? in topics of; dress, food, what was entertainment, jobs, presidents. do you think people poperly raise kids and teach kids right now, and how was it before? war opinions? what was the big thing? how were you raised? pretty much whatever you can tell me about how life is different now, and how it was back then. all answers are so very appreciated!

Answer 1

I was in grammar school in the 50's. I remember having a lot of freedom, running around the neighborhood with my friends. Parents weren't so protective of children as they are now. We played lots of hide and seek, tag, hopscotch, red rover, and jumped rope. My brothers played a lot of baseball in a field, no parents around, no uniforms, just a bunch of boys with 1 or 2 bats and a couple balls. My girlfriends and I also played with paper dolls. We played Monopoly, Chinese Checkers and card games like Rummy. We only received toys or games on Christmas or birthdays, and even then, we didn't receive much. We didn't have nearly the things kids have today. I remember how much I wanted the box of 24 crayons, and my mother wouldn't buy them. She set the 8 crayon box was all I needed. I did have a pair of skates - the old fashioned kind that you attached to your shoes with a key, which I kept on a string around my neck - but only because I won them in a raffle. Gosh, I loved those skates.

All the mothers on the street were home all day. I don't remember my mother, or any of the mothers, sitting down much. They were always doing laundry, ironing, cooking, and cleaning. In the early 50's there were only 2 TV stations, and those didn't even broadcast all day. My mother had the radio on all the time. We were the first family on our street to have a TV, only because my father worked for a manufacturer. All the kids on the street would come to our house and watch Roy Rogers and Flash Gordon. It was like magic to see this in our living room, even if it was in black and white.

My parents never set foot in my school and teachers never expected them to. Parents just didn't get involved in school back then. I was expected to do my own homework without their help. We also didn't get chauffeured around anyplace, because all the families had 1 car and the dads took it to work. The milkman brought milk every 3 days, the dry cleaner stopped once a week if you put their sign in your window, the baker came around in a small truck every few days, and the doctor made house calls.

Unless my mother baked a cake or made a pie, we rarely had junk food. Chips, ice cream, pizza, soda, and candy was for a birthday party, not something normally kept in the house.

Life is so different for kids today. Most of them come home to an empty house, then sit around and play on computers or watch TV. Some things about the 50's were not good, but I'm glad I had my childhood back then. It really was a fun time for me.

Answer 2

I didn't start dating until about 1959. I was pretty shy and it took me awhile to lighten up and start having fun. I remember seeing Marilyn Monroe in "Some Like It Hot." I loved the music back then. I liked it better; I don't like Acid Rock... whatever that is, I don't think it is music though. Times then were easier, you didn't even have to lock your door at night... depending on where you lived. If you were driving down the highway and had a flat, chances were that soon someone would stop and give you a little help. We didn't wear seatbelts. Didn't wear motorcycle helments. Drive-In Restaurants were popular. We went to the employment office to get a job or to the Company's Human Resource office to apply for work. Today, you can put a resume online and get picked-up right away. Back in the 50's the Churches really looked out for the young people. They were always planning parties, and all kind of fun things to do. In my particular Church, a big event was planned almost every Friday night. Often we could get the use of a School Bus to transport us to out of town Churches to attend "get togethers." If that happened now days, someone could get fired over it; there would be a big protest and the press would be all over it. The ACLU would show up. Tsk... Back then it was perfectly acceptable to pray in school and our Principal always led us in prayer before each Assembly in the auditorium. Back then, Politicans were well respected. Teachers and Policeman were respected. Most people in general had respect for each other, even if they were strangers. And yes, we always had family meals together. We did lots of things together, swimming, fishing, hunting, the whole neighborhood would get together in the cool of the evening and play basketball. Or jam with music. Or just hang out. You could always hear a lawn mower running in the distance somewhere. I wish it were still that way. My next door neighbor was a Music Teacher and seems she was always giving music lessons from 2:00 p.m. to midnight, five and a half days a week. I believe she had a waiting list... people wanting her to work them in somehow, someway. lol

Answer 3

Life in Dublin, Ireland in the 50s - we still had ration books up to 1954. We had a car, but they weren't very plentiful compared with now. Most people travelled by bus. Basic foods in the shops - we bought ingredients, ready meals didn't come for decades more, and even things like yogurt hadn't appeared on the shelves. Money was short, but it was for everyone. We had a long back garden and weren't allowed out on the street, but many children did play safely with simple games like hopscotch. My first wages in 1964 were £3 a week - of that I got 2 pounds 15 shillings and 2 pence, the other 4 shillings and 10 pence were tax. A loaf of bread was 9 pence in the old money in 1954, but four years alter had almost doubled. The average wage then was £7. I remember magazine ads promoting roast beef for Sunday, cold for Monday and bread and dripping for Wednesday and Thursday. Friday of course meant fish and we always had sausages on Saturdays. These meals are light years away from what we eat now.



Women had to leave work when they got married, even up to the time I got married in 1970. Women became full-time housewives, and families were larger. There were 6 of us, about average for the time. There was very little choice of career for girls - you became a teacher, nurse, hairdresser or civil servant, that was about the size of the choice. University is free now, but back then it had to be paid for, so most of us never got the chance to go.



Morally it was a totally different country. All the rules were very black and white, and I think there was a lot more respect then. In other ways the outspokenness we have now is healthier. Children out of wedlock was a huge no-no, I know one family who moved house to escape the disgrace when the daughter got pregnant, and they sent her to a mother-and-baby home but told everyone she had gone to England.



There was corporal punishment in schools, and many children got regularly battered. Nowadays there is no corporal punishment, and some children simply run haywire and can't be told off.



We all wore hand-me-downs and thought nothing of it. I had older cousins and got lots of stuff from them. We were all raised well. There was no vandalism, drugs problem or any of the excesses we see now. For entertainment, people visited each other and played cards etc. We had the radio, there was no TV in our house (or most others) until late in the 1960s. There was cinema and theatre, and every school had a concert at Christmas. Holidays didn't mean two weeks in the sun abroad somewhere - it meant two weeks staying with grandma down the country. Many people left Ireland to find jobs overseas, and travel was very expensive so often they never came home again. Nowadays with budget airlines, we don't think twice about booking a ticket.



The war didn't have much impact on us except for headlines in the newspapers, and of course on the radio. We made our own fun and we made good friends. That kept us going.

Answer 4

If someone was age 15 in 1955, that person would be 72 years old now. If you check around your neighborhood, your church or among your relatives, there may be people who are in the 69 through 80 age range who will tell you a lot more than what you would read on YA. I am certain that many would be willing to give you a fine interview.



Good luck with the "research".

Answer 5

Well, when any of us are young, the world usually seems wonderful no matter what the cold hard facts happen to be. So I have lots of nice memories of the 1950s. But in reality, the Fifties were the darkest decade in American history. In spite of priding themselves on their "morality," the people of the 1950s were the most immoral in every meaningful way. As far as morals are concerned, the world is much better off now.



A lot of the immorality in post-war America was the result of religious idiocy, and the Catholic Church in particular, which was extremely powerful and which used its power to promote a lot of hateful, reactonary insanity on pretty much any subject you can name. They were in favor of war, they were against liberty and justice, they had a pathological hatred of sex. And so on.



The military and the industries associated with the military were also extremely powerful and an enormous portion of the nation's wealth was squandered on the Cold War, which the military-ihdustrial complex did its best to promote and expand--seriously risking the survival of the entire human race.



And besides that, there was murderous hatred toward black Americans, widespread and institutionalized contempt for the rights of women, a profound fear of Jews, homosexuals, and anyone with an emotional problem of any kind, a hysterical and draconian witch hunt for anyone with left-wing political opinions, and a rigid code of conformity that rewarded soldiers and obedient wage slaves and housewives, and punished everyone else.



My parents were both teachers, and because of their good educations I was lucky enough to grow up seeing the 1950s for what it really was. By today's standards their wages were poverty-level. But even ten thousand dollars went a long way in those days, so we enjoyed a comfortable middle-class life.

Answer 6

I feel lucky in a way to have been raised in the 50's. Parents expected the kids to be home at 6 pm before dinner, school projects and homework were a lot simplier, the method of teaching in grade school was kind of traditional; we were not trained to ask, discuss or argue. Only few of my teachers asked why, how questions. May that was what was applicable then.



Sex was a no, no topic. No one dared asked about it. BTW, I was educated by Catholic sisters therefore mass, rosary and devotion to the Blessed Mother was sort of a must and also first Fri mass gor the Sacred Heart of Jesus.Confession and Sunday mass was never questioned.



Proper attire for modesty was required during holy mass ( no sleeveless dress) and when biking, we follow a dress code which is good, no shorts and pedal pusher was encouraged. I woudln't raise my voice for proper decorum.



Kids were seen, not heard. When guests come to the house, young ones were normally shoved to the family room.I was usually asked to play the piano, one or two pcs I have mastered, then have to quietly go back to the family room.



The value of money was fantastic! Just an example, to buy a decent shoes now a days, I need P 2,000.00 back then, my school shoes was only P 7.00 or less. The exchange rate then was P 3.00 to a US dollar. Now, it's P 42 to a dollar!



For dresses, since we were 4 girls in the family, hand me down was normal; no question or protest whatsoever. Was luckier because, am the second girl in the family, so the dresses I had to get from my big sister was still relatively nice.



Frugal and simple was our life then. Teen parties were strictly supervised by the parents or adults: barn dance, hawaiian and few costume parties. It usually started at 8 and ended at around 12, sometimes extension was allowed but only for 1 hr.



I feel respect for the elders, love of family and simplicity

Was emphasized. I had 2 pair of shoes for the year, school bag was used until it literally fell apart, books in school were never bought but borrowed for a year.



We were one of the first family to have a phone, but it could not connect to many establishment, it was via a phone operator. There are many more but it might bore you. Thanks and good luck.

Answer 7

you know what? I've answered this same question about 5 times in the last couple of weeks, and did it in detail, so why not do a search on YA for your answers.



You want way too much information for a mere 10 points. Why not ask seniors about the 1950's and then ask the kids today how it is...that way it would be a fair comparison.



The kids today aren't strong enough to live in the 1950's, they're wimps. The laws are different now, back then women were owned by their husbands and their life surrounded their husband first and their kids came second. They were homemakers unless they had kids out of wedlock (and they were shamed) or divorced and "had to" work as a waitress (which was a shame and they were shamed). Most times as a kid you couldn't go anywhere and you weren't allowed to date until you were 20 because parents didn't want you marrying until you were at least 21. By the time everyone graduated high school and were out a couple of years they were all married, some with kids. I worked in the steel mill offices and in 1965 if you worked there you couldn't be married, a couple of years later if you worked there they allowed you to have kids. If you had either of those at the wrong time you were fired. People back then worked hard, worked a lot, one car so it was shared or you rode the bus, radio where I was had two stations, the operator connected our phone calls, we had a coal furnace and no washer/dryer and dishwashers weren't out yet. We got our b/w tv late in the 1950's and everything on tv was decent. We didn't want for anything, my parents owned their home but it was because they rented the upstairs of their home and dad worked 3 jobs. Families were close back then. Milk was delivered to our door. coal was delivered to our basement, we'd call in the grocery list and they would deliver to our kitchen, the health insurance man would stop by and sit at our table and wait for his check, and if we got sick we'd call the doctor and he would come to the house to see us. In the mornings mom would get up before we did and she would put coal on the furnace and heat up the house and light the pilot light so we'd have hot water to wash up in. To dry our hair we had a sunlamp. We had wood floors and mom would take the throw rugs out to the clothes line and beat the dust and dirt out of the carpets with a rug beater. Mom would wash clothes by first putting them in cold water, putting them thru the ringer, then into the soapy water and it would rotate, then put them thru the ringer, then thru the rinse water, then thru the ringer and then put them into a basked and lug them up the stairs and hang them individually on the clothes line, it was an all-day deal. That night she would dampen all the clothes to be ironed and spend the next day ironing clothes all day and maybe some of the next day. And instead of washing walls we'd use this green lump of what looked like silly putty and clean the walls by wiping the walls with that lump, fold the lump and continue to clean the wall till the lump was black and then we'd get a clean lump. This is only a very small part of what we used to do. We didn't have time for fun. My first job was called a stenographer and part of my job was to type up technical data of coal mines on an old royal non-electric typewriter (and we used carbon paper for copies, no xeroxing). I also did filing and duplicating mechanical engineering drawings on an ozlid machine. My income was paid "monthly" and was $320.00........years later I got my first car around age 33 and it was for $5,600 brand new.

Answer 8

I can tell you about a little of the 40's I wasn't born until early 50's

My brother was a war baby. Things were rationed. It was hard to get gas, tires so people walked, rode bikes, buses and trolleys. The used ration books. They had metal drives to make ammunition. They sold war bonds.

For the 1950's

We were safe and could walk to school without fear.

Most mothers were house wives.Fathers could work 40 hour week and support a middle class family well.

When you went to town you dressed up nicely. People were friendly in those days.

We lined up as a family to get our Polio vaccine on a sugar cube at the grade school.

We had penny candy then. Mom and pop neighborhood stores to shop for food. No malls or big box stores then.We had corner drug stores where a soda jerk fixed you malts, sodas, sundaes, and ice cream cones. We took trips on trains and it was classy.The dinner car used fresh flowers in vases, linen, china and silver was used. I will send you some sites to look at also. We played a lot outside. Hide and seek, made mud pies, played house, cowboys and indians.





http://www.wgeneration.com/1940.html

http://pinterest.com/jannetie/1950s-nostalgia/

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/

http://pinterest.com/search/?q=1940%27s

Answer 9

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Answer 10

I have short tresses for the first time since I was 10 years old and We really like it but I miss my long curly locks so I'm growing it back out!

Answer 11

in Europe,Grim,5 years of war 10 years of Austerity it was only the 60s that made life bearable

Answer 12

All I know is that the goldfish fad was around. I think in the 50's unsure though

Answer 13

While you read a reserve you see the story how you want to imagine it not the way the director wants someone to see it

Answer 14

For me, short. an individual see, hair like jared leto's appear too effortless and sometimes even greasy. Shortcuts are more fun to enjoy with and some sttles look better on them.

Answer 15

reading is much better the book continues u thinking so you get more detail in what folks are thinking so you have more imagination

Answer 16

it was the birth of our nation- unlike anyother time- lets us not ever forget-the 50's

Answer 17

Gee, would you allow me to write your whole essay?



Life in the 50's was simpler, and enveloped more refined social norms than today..